news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Source: Cover News

Recently, the International Data Corporation (IDC) released the latest quarterly mobile phone tracking data. The report shows that in the second quarter of 2024, China's smartphone market shipments reached 71.58 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.9%, continuing the growth momentum. Among them, driven by manufacturers such as vivo and OPPO, the Android market grew by 11.1% year-on-year.

Chinese local manufacturers take the top five spots

In the second quarter of 2024, the smartphone market in mainland China further recovered after experiencing a warming inflection point in the previous quarter. In addition, Chinese local manufacturers took the top five spots for the first time.

Thanks to its solid offline channel layout and accurate grasp of the "618" e-commerce promotion, vivo's shipments increased by 15% year-on-year to 13.1 million units, and it regained the top spot in the Chinese market with a 19% market share.

OPPO, with the release of the new Reno 12 series, secured the second place with 11.3 million units shipped. Honor, Huawei, and Xiaomi followed closely behind, ranking third and fourth with 10.7 million and 10.6 million units shipped, respectively. Xiaomi returned to the top five with 10 million units shipped and a year-on-year growth of 17%.

Apple, once a leading mobile phone brand, fell to sixth place in terms of shipments in Q2, with its market share slightly down 2% year-on-year, accounting for 14% of the market share.

After the substantial price cut, although Apple's market demand has improved significantly, iOS market shipments still fell by 3.1% year-on-year. The lower shipments in the same period last year and the arrival of a new round of replacement cycles helped China's smartphone market shipments exceed 140 million units in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%.

Canalys Research Manager Liu Yixuan said: "This quarter, the Chinese market welcomed a long-awaited double-digit rebound, and the pace of recovery gradually approached the global level of 12%. From a macro perspective, the overall consumption environment is still under pressure, and manufacturers are using more stimulus measures to catalyze market demand. This year's '618' e-commerce shopping festival has become a highlight. Manufacturers and e-commerce platforms have launched the promotion cycle earlier than in previous years and increased promotion efforts, which has promoted the recovery of demand to a certain extent."

The folding screen market continues to gain momentum

In the second quarter of 2024, China's foldable screen mobile phone market continued to heat up, with shipments reaching 2.57 million units, a triple-digit growth year-on-year.

Among them, Huawei ranks first in China's foldable screen mobile phone market share with a market share of 41.7%; vivo ranks second with a market share of 23.1% thanks to its X Fold3 series, which has solved many pain points of foldable screen mobile phones. Honor ranks third in the second quarter with a market share of 20.9%, ranking second in the vertical folding market; OPPO ranks fourth with a market share of 8.4%, ranking third in the vertical folding market; Samsung ranks fifth with a market share of 3.0%.

As more manufacturers launch new-generation foldable screen products, it is expected that China's foldable screen mobile phone market will continue to maintain rapid growth in the second half of the year.

The market is clearly moving towards high-end products, and AI will become a core competitive advantage

According to the report, more and more mid-range consumers are beginning to focus on upgrading their consumption experience, choosing high-end flagship products or large storage versions to extend the replacement cycle. In the second quarter, China's high-end mobile phone market share of more than US$600 reached 25.9%, an increase of 2.8% over the same period last year. At the same time, some consumers chose to downgrade their consumption due to the economic environment, and were more inclined to buy cost-effective products or second-hand phones. In the second quarter, China's market share of US$200-600 mobile phones was 46.3%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.8%. This trend has prompted manufacturers to pay more attention to the balance between user experience and cost-effectiveness in product design and marketing strategies.

Canalys research analyst Zhong Xiaolei said: "In recent years, Chinese manufacturers have firmly implemented the high-end strategy and have worked closely with local supply chain partners to gradually achieve results in both software and hardware. From a medium- to long-term perspective, China's high-end market has abundant opportunities. Chinese brands such as OPPO and vivo are leading in consumer education and application of generative AI."

With the continuous development and application of AI technology, manufacturers are accelerating the construction of their own AI infrastructure and self-developed models. AI will gradually become the core driving force for improving product competitiveness and user experience. Against this background, the Chinese smartphone market is expected to usher in a brighter development prospect.